Jim Small from the Arizona Mirror retweeted this thread from Cristina Bergen, MD, Associate Program Director for University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix IM Residency, which every parent with school age children should read. It is a powerful testimonial.
Our “Wimpy Kid” Governor, “Do Nothing” Doug Ducey, and the anti-science, anti-masker, anti-vaxxer MAGA/QAnon death cult Republicans in the Arizona legislature are willing to sacrifice your child’s health – even their life – for some insane quasi-religious political cult belief system. They have failed our children.
How many children will wind up hospitalized on ventilators, and how many children will die over the next several weeks, before the governor calls a special session to repeal the reckless and irresponsible bill passed by our Republican-controlled legislature and signed by our Republican governor forbidding local governments and school districts from mandating COVID safety protocols and remedial measures recommended by the CDC?
And when is the federal money appropriated by the American Rescue Act to the states earlier this year for COVID remedial measures in schools going to school districts in Arizona as intended by Congress?
Or did our Republican-controlled legislature and Republican governor divert those funds to its indefensible tax cuts to benefit the wealthy and corporations, in direct contradiction of the expressed will of Congress that the American Rescue Act funds not be used for tax cuts for this purpose?
Their actions go beyond criminal negligence – it is criminal. Every one of them need to be held accountable at law for the deaths of any children that occur as school districts reopen to the Delta varian surge over the next several weeks. Every death that occurs is on their heads.
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In July, the Arizona Medical Association advised schools and education leaders to follow federal health guidelines, particularly the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance that says schools should implement mask use, coronavirus testing and contact tracing. “Arizona Medical Association’s Statement on Upholding Public Health Policies in K-12 Schools”, https://www.azmed.org/news/573753/Arizona-Medical-Associations-Statement-on-Upholding-Public-Health-Policies-in-K-12-Schools.htm
Last week, “Pediatricians urge Ducey to rescind school mask-mandate ban”, https://www.azmirror.com/2021/08/06/pediatricians-urge-ducey-to-rescind-school-mask-mandate-ban/
[M]ore than 150 doctors have signed onto a letter praising schools that have defied a state law banning mask mandates and are urging Gov. Doug Ducey to change his mind on the law.
“I honestly can’t believe we are here all over again,” Dr. Susan Hughes, a Scottsdale-based family practice physician, said at a Capitol press conference after attempting to deliver the letter to Ducey.
Hughes hand-delivered the letter along with Dr. Jacqueline Carter, an internist and pediatrician in Tempe. She delivered a similar letter in June 2020 urging Ducey to allow cities, towns and counties to institute their own mask mandates; that letter was signed by more than 3,000 doctors.
“This is not the first time we are here asking the governor to do the right thing,” Hughes told the Arizona Mirror.
The signatures for the new letter were gathered in 72 hours, and Hughes said that is part of the reason why there are less people signed on than last time — that, and they are busy with more and more patients filling up Arizona hospital beds every day.
Arizona is currently averaging 2,209 cases of COVID-19 a day, up 81% from two weeks ago.
Hughes and Carter handed the letter to a Ducey staffer. Ducey’s office did not respond to questions about whether he plans to meet with the doctors.
The Washington Post has picked up Dr. Bergen’s story. “Arizona ban on mask mandates took away mother’s ‘ability to keep my kids safe’ at school, she says”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/08/09/arizona-doctor-decries-schools-lack-of-masks-rules/
(excerpt)
Since the pandemic was declared, Bergin said, she has done everything she can to avoid bringing the virus home to her family: She maintains a strict decontamination routine that takes up to 45 minutes every day to get out of her hospital scrubs, cleans her cellphone and protective gear, and takes a shower before daring to hug her husband or two girls after long shifts at University Medical Center in Phoenix, where she specializes in internal medicine.
Furious with the school’s note, she condemned state officials for passing a law in June that prohibits schools from mandating the use of masks or proof of vaccinations, as Arizona and the rest of the United States face a surge in coronavirus infections fueled by the highly transmissible delta variant.
“We have sacrificed so much for you over these past 18 months. And it took only 3 days for you to destroy one of the last things I was hanging onto — the ability to keep my kids safe,” Bergin tweeted.
Bergin criticized Gov. Doug Ducey (R) for “forcing schools to reopen without the ability to implement the same measures that kept kids & staff safe last year,” she wrote.
“And as a direct result, my kiddo, who I’ve managed to keep from coming into contact with a known COVID+ person for 18 long months, was exposed within only 3 days of starting school,” she wrote, adding that her two children still wear masks in school.
“… But if others aren’t masking up also, my not-yet-old-enough-to-be-vaxxed kids can be, will be, & already have been exposed. And that’s on you,” she said, tagging the accounts of Ducey and the Arizona Republican Party.
“Why did I do all this?” she said in the Twitter thread. “Because I know how bad this virus can be, what it can do to even healthy individuals.”
She went on to list long-lasting effects of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, that can affect adults and children — including heart damage, scarred lungs, loss of smell and taste, prolonged cough and shortness of breath.
Bergin’s remarks have been widely shared on social media, with more than 25,000 retweets and more than 80,000 likes, a response that “floored” her.
“I thought I was trying to scream out into the void and nobody would ever see it,” she told The Washington Post on Sunday.
But her words echoed the mounting concerns of Arizona residents, school officials, health-care workers and parents who are resisting a state law that bars schools from mask mandates, despite federal public health guidelines that say students and staff members in K-12 schools should cover their faces indoors.
[B]ergin said that with the recent ban on mask and vaccine mandates, there is a lot of confusion about whether schools are allowed to implement other measures such as quarantines after possible exposures.
Her daughter’s public charter school — which The Post is not naming because Bergin says she was concerned for her children’s safety after some users posted offensive comments about her Twitter thread — is not requiring quarantine for students or staff members who may have been exposed to the virus, she said. The school has told parents that their children can attend classes unless they develop symptoms.
In the letter, the school “strongly encouraged” children to wear a face covering for 14 days after the potential exposure.
[A]ccording to a database of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. According to the same data, Arizona has the second-highest number of covid-19-related deaths — 34 — of people 19 and younger.
Banner Health, Arizona’s largest health-care provider, has seen a 95 percent increase in covid-19 cases and a 300 percent increase in ventilator use since July 1. Five percent of those cases were in the pediatrics department, according to a report released Tuesday.
Bergin said that she is working with parents, health professionals and experts who are pressuring Ducey and the Arizona Department of Health Services, and that she will send a letter urging them to implement mask requirements and other policies for unvaccinated students.